Cranberry Sauce

By Aoife Whelan – Ooooohhh Daddy this sauce is the ticket! I don’t know about you but it just isn’t Christmas for me without cranberry sauce. It’s so zingy and sweet and perks up any leftover Christmas leftovers, specifically my Santa Sandwich (Basically, left overs from Christmas day, bread, mayo, stuffing, ham, turkey and CRANBERRY SAUCE!!!) my god its good. Anyway back to the sauce. This recipe uses honey and maple syrup instead of sugar so its refined sugar free but feel free to use whatever sweetener you like. If you want to keep it vegan then just use maple syrup. It’s also naturally dairy free and gluten free so there you go! ?

Obviously, cranberry sauce is a major thing during the holidays between Thanksgiving in America and Christmas mostly because cranberries are in season during this time, which makes them cheap and easily accessible. Oh and you’ll never guess what…… In disease fighting antioxidants, cranberries outrank nearly every fruit and vegetable including strawberries, spinach, broccoli, red grapes, apples, raspberries, and cherries. Wooohooo go on the Cranberry!!! ?

Grab a large pot and tumble the cranberries into it along with the rest of the ingredients. Watch the cranberries don’t bounce all over the floor, this is how they got their nickname bounce berries! ?

You can leave the mulled wine tea bags whole if you want but I usually just rip them open and pour the contents in. This is just because one year I couldn’t find the tea bags to take out so I’m pretty sure they dissolved in it! Yikes! ?

Bring everything to the boil. I love this part! The cranberries start to pop as they cook, for some strange reason I find the noise quiet satisfying its kind of like cooking popcorn, but you’ll see what I mean! ?

So once the cranberries have boiled for 12 minutes, take a little bit of the sauce and spoon it on to a plate, let it cool for about a minute and then run your finger through it.

This is how you test to see that the sauce has set into a jam like consistency. The line should stay clean without the sauce running back into it. If it isn’t then you need to cook more.

You’ll know when the sauce is cooked when all the cherries have popped and look dark red and squishy and the plate test has worked. Then simply take off the heat and pour into sterilised jars (Just put them through a normal cycle in the dishwasher). Et voila! You’ve done it! You just made your own cranberry sauce and now you have some super cheap yet impressive home made Christmas gifts! Wooohooo ?